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Friday, December 24, 2010

These, as one might guess from the name, allow you to to see the heat signatures given off by peds, cars, and whatnot. By selecting them from your item list and pressing circle to equip (or unequip later), the screen turns a rather psychedelic set of blue, purple, pink, and red hues; with blue being cold and red being hot, of course. After equipping the goggles, you're free to switch to another weapon so as to freely take out enemies you couldn't have seen otherwise. Naturally, they're best to use at night when it's hard to see otherwise, but even then they're still better suited to longer range combat. Moving about with these on can be somewhat tricky at times due to cooler landscape/building objects blending together with the ambient background heat (or lack thereof rather).

Whether you're jumping/falling off a tall building, or leaping from a plane thousands of meters up, the parachute is an absolute necessity unless you want to be a puddle for some bizarre reason. After equipping the 'chute (which happens automatically when jumping from an airborne plane), you can dive, rotate, and glide a bit during free-fall with the left stick. At some point or another, it would be a good idea to deploy the parachute by pressing circle. After it's opened, you can steer yourself with the left stick- left/right turn, up speeds your descent gradually, and pushing down gives you a bit of extra lift allowing you to move forward while slowing your fall.

Considering the new ability to set the environment on fire, it's only natural that a fire extinguisher was included in the game. Unless you're the conscientious criminal type who likes to clean up behind your fiery rampages, chances are you'll really only use this in missions which require escaping from burning buildings. Whatever the reason you use it, doing so is just a matter of aiming with R1 and the right stick, and pressing circle to spray the foamy stuff. For best results, aim at the base of the fire and continue spraying until it goes out.

The camera first made its appearance in Vice City as a one-off item used in a single mission. This time around, the camera is not only used in a few missions and side quests, it actually has some fun uses in and of itself. By holding R1, the screen switches to the viewfinder where you can aim with the right stick plus zoom in and out with L2 and R2. In mission situations where you're required to take pics, the circle button takes the picture and you're done. If you're so inclined to actually save the pic to look at later, hitting L1 will allow you to save the image to your memory card, where you can access it via the gallery in the pause menu any time you want.

Kind of looks like an old can of Montana spray paint, which was made by and for graffiti artists, but that's beside the point. Or, maybe it's not, as the main purpose for the spray can is to throw up Grove Street tags over those of rival gangs. Using the paint is really quite simple, just hold R1 to target a tag (or ped, if you really want to), and hold circle until the tag is finished. If you're in a real tight spot you can use it as a weapon with similar results to the tear gas, thought it's hardly effective enough to rely on for a primary defense. Oh, and you can always find one in the upstairs bedroom at the Johnson House in Ganton should you need some paint.

RPGs and other shoulder-fired missiles have long had a place in Grand Theft Auto. The STINGER is the next level. Lightweight and portable, this shoulder-fired guided missile system is designed to shoot down low-altitude jets, propeller-driven aircraft and helicopters. The fire-and-forget system allows the player to lock onto a heat source, usually a car or plane, fire the weapon, and begin acquiring new targets before the warhead has even destroyed the first target. To activate, bring up the targeting reticle by pressing R1. Continue holding down R1 and center the viewfinder on the target. The reticle will acquire the nearest target, and then change from green to yellow and finally to red, indicating that you have achieved target lock. You can fire the weapon at any stage of the lock-on process, but the closer to red, the more effective your strike will be. The production, research, and development of the Stinger Missile System is a secret, but intrepid pilots flying over the deserts on the outskirts of Las Venturas have a ton of stories about near misses with the Stinger. *

Ah yes, the classic Soviet RPG look-alike is a must have for any one man army out to take on an entire state full of gangs and such. Basically, it's just a big tube with a scope and a trigger to ignite the rockets which propel impact-triggered grenades. Just aim it at a target using R1 and the right stick, fire, and *boom*. One shot is usually all it takes to blow up any car (or group of cars for that matter), although there are a number of vehicles which require multiple hits to destroy, such as tanks and armored vans. Obviously, you don't want to use one of these in any sort of close quarters combat, but if you couldn't figure that out, chances are you can't read this page anyway.

This formidable weapon is the player's best friend. Designed to deliver massive and withering barrages of ammunition at an alarming rate of fire, this weapon is designed for total destruction of the target and anything around it. Despite its massive size and weight, the gun is portable enough to be carried--and fired--on the streets of San Andreas. Police responding to an incident where a mini-gun is in use would be quick to call in SWAT to deal with the menace. An intricate piece of machinery, its belt driven mechanics will turn the barrels even if the gun is not firing, a sound that eerily forecasts the destruction that is about to be unleashed. Hold R1 to spin up the barrel and squeeze L1 to fire. *